


Not on the Map

by Sinistretoile



Series: Hallowe'en [58]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 31 Days Of Halloween, Abandoned towns, Alternate Universe - Horror, Halloween, Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:41:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22157197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinistretoile/pseuds/Sinistretoile
Summary: After her car breaks down on a cross-country drive, Agent 25 stops in a small town that's not on the map. And perhaps a little too good to be true...
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Original Character(s), Steve Rogers/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Hallowe'en [58]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1127573
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	Not on the Map

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: 'Towns like these are special,' the mechanic tells you, a large smile on her face. 'Once you're here, you never want to leave.'

The check engine light came on in the rental car. “No.” She glanced at the GPS on her phone and it didn’t look like a town for miles. Maybe she could push the car a little further. Five miles. That’s how far she got before the check engine light began flashing and white smoke curled up from under the hood. The engine made a horrible grinding sound. And the car lurched to a halt.  
She pulled up the GPS. Still nothing for miles. Good thing Steve had had them run routinely with a full ruck sack on their back, like in the military. She dialed Steve.  
“Agent 25, something wrong?”  
“The fucking rental car died on me.”  
“What? How?”  
“The check engine light came on and now the engine’s on fire. Hold on.” She popped the trunk and the hood simultaneously. She retrieved the fire extinguisher from the trunk and calmly hosed down the blaze engulfing the engine. She could hear Steve shouting her name from the phone on the driver’s seat. “Baby, calm down. I’m fine. Just pissed off at this fucking car.”  
“Send me your coordinates and I’ll send transport.”  
She laughed softly. “Stevie, baby, don’t pretend you haven’t been tracking me this whole drive.” He sighed on the other end.  
“Just do it, please.”  
She laughed louder this time. “Alright.” She pulled the phone away from her ear and sent him the GPS coordinates from her phone. “I’m gonna start walking towards the next town. Maybe they’ll have a mechanic or tow truck or something.”  
“Agent 25, stay with the car.”  
She paused a breath and heard him curse. “Did you just give me an order?” He sighed. But she cut him off before he could speak. “Captain Rogers, I’ve got the intel on my person. I’m heading due west toward the next town on my GPS map. You send your transport but I’m not waiting. The weather is fine and I need to stretch my legs.”  
“I’m sorry, doll.”  
“Save it.” She winced at her own harsh tone. “Make it up to me when I get back.” Awkward silence filled the line. “Continue tracking me. I’m gonna head into the next town. Okay, Steve?”  
“Ok, doll. Just be careful. Ok?”  
“I will, Steve. I love you.”  
“I love you.” She made sure her GPS was still working and the car was locked up. Not that it was going anywhere. A nice breeze followed her as she walked toward the next town on the map on her phone. According to the map, she would be arriving in the next town around the time transport would be getting to her broken down vehicle. But no way was she sitting in that car for 7-9 hours, depending on how fast they drove. She’d go fucking nuts.  
Approximately four hours into her walk, she noticed she was approaching a town. She checked her GPS several times as more houses and buildings could be seen on the horizon, yet her immediate area on the GPS remained unchanged.  
She dialed Steve and lifted her phone to her ear. “Sweetheart? Are you ok?”  
“Hey, baby…I’m…I don’t know.”  
“Agent 25?”  
“Steve, there’s a town here that isn’t on the GPS.”  
“That’s not so unusual.”  
“Captain Rogers, we have the most reliable and accurate GPS satellites in the world. Were it normal GPS, I would agree. This time, I respectfully disagree.”  
“Are you alright?”  
“I’m fine.” Her route carried into a more residential area. “I don’t see anyone. It looks like a normal small in the middle of rural America.”  
“But?”  
“Something just feels off. For all intents and purposes, I’m alone. But I don’t –FEEL- it.”  
“I’m pulling up the satellite feed for your coordinates now. Stay on the line.”  
“I’m not going anywhere, Stevie.” She looked around, not putting the phone down. “This doesn’t feel right.”  
“Nothing. There’s nothing. It shows you moving along a highway.”  
“You can see me?”  
“No, a dot representing you.”  
“Oh.” Her shoulders slumped.  
“I can pull Tony.”  
“No, no, I’ll be fine. Just…”  
“What is it, sweetheart?” She could practically see her boyfriend, tense and thoughtful, planning his next three actions.  
“Can you come with transport?”  
“I’ll scramble a Quin. I’m on my way.” Before she could argue that she was fine, just unsettled, he ended the call. And she knew there would be no arguing with him. He was in Steve the protector mode, and he would do everything possible to rescue and protect her.  
Her gut told her to keep walking. But her feet screamed for a break. Just her luck before she hit the town’s main drag, there was the stereotypical mechanic’s shop. Rock music blared from the open bay door. The lower half of a body stuck out from underneath a truck.  
“Excuse me?” The mechanic didn’t move. “Excuse me!”  
There was a clatter underneath the truck and mechanic slid out from underneath. “What’s the big idea?” The girl rubbed her head.  
“I’m so sorry. I’m just passing through and my rental car died on me about 30 miles west of here.”  
“And you walked all that way?”  
“I did.” She shifted on her aching feet.  
The mechanic grunted as she pulled herself up from the floor. The slip of a girl was about her height but she slenderer in frame and looked delicate enough to break. Which contrasted the grease and grime from the truck she’d been working on. “I’ll fire up the tow. You go sit a spell in the office there. There’s lemonade and sugar cookies. Help yourself.”  
“You’ll need the keys.” She held them out to the girl. The pretty brunette smiled and took them before she shooed her into the office.  
Agent 25 swung the pack off her back and set it on the floor by the chair. The office was clean and professional but still smelled of grease and gasoline. She poured herself a cup of lemonade and grabbed a couple cookies before she sat down in the chair.  
The mechanic glanced over her shoulder at Agent 25 as she climbed into the tow truck parked out in front of the second work bay. With a sigh, Agent 25 settled down into the almost comfortable chair and drank down the lemonade. The cookies made her realize just how hungry she was. She drank another cup of lemonade then scribbled a note for the mechanic that she’d be back.  
Agent 25 found a diner that served the best vanilla milk shake and apple pie with cheddar cheese. Only after she polished off the pie, did she eat her burger and fries. Even though her feet screamed after those two short reprieves, she went in search for a hotel. Just in case transport was going to take longer.  
The mechanic was under the rental car when she rocked back up to the garage. Agent 25 cleared her throat. “Excuse me?”  
“Oh, you’re back.” The little brunette slid out from underneath the car. “Enjoy your dinner?”  
“Absolutely. I think that was the best pie I’ve had in years. And I’ve had some damn fine pie.”  
“Pie ain’t the only thing damn fine in this town.”  
Agent 25 sighed and looked around the picturesque little village. She could image herself with Steve living in a place like this. Something right out of Norman fucking Rockwell. Rogers would find that hilarious. “I can see that.”  
“Towns like these are special.” The mechanic wiped her hands on the greasy rag. Her large friendly smile unsettled something at the back of Agent 25’s brain. “Once you’re here, you never want to leave.”  
Agent 25 smiled and shook her head. “As pleasant as that sounds, I’ve got a boyfriend back home. He can be a problematic punk, but I love him.” She glanced up at the sky, missing the way the mechanic’s eye twitched and her smile drooped slightly. “In fact, I better call him to let him know where the car and I are at so he can relay it to my ride.”  
“Oh, you’ve got someone coming for ya?”  
“I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find anyone to fix the car so Steve, that’s my boyfriend, sent a team to pick me up.”  
“Steve sounds like a nice name.”  
Agent 25 turned away from the mechanic, whose neck twitched. “Yeah, he’s pretty nice. Sometimes too nice. I often wonder what Captain America sees in a girl like me.”  
The girl hit her head on the undercarriage. “You’re THE Captain America’s girlfriend?” She come sliding out from underneath the car like a shot.  
Agent 25 rubbed the back of her neck. “Yeah… I probably shouldn’t have said that. He worries that people might use me to get to him.”  
“I can see that.” The mechanic squinted up at her from the floor.  
Agent 25 couldn’t explain the unsettling feeling she got from the girl as she continued to look up at her. “Well, I’m gonna wait in the office.”  
The girl smiled broad and bright. “Go right ahead. Make yourself at home. Did you try the lemonade?”  
“Yes, yeah, very good. Tasted just like a lemon shake-up from the carnival.”  
“Help yourself to some more if you’d like.”  
“Thank you.” Agent 25 glanced over her shoulder as she headed back to the office and the girl went back under the rental car. Her stomach twisted with apprehension. She took out her phone to dial Steve as she sat down in the chair.

“Doll. Doll!” Agent 25 snapped awake and on reflex slapped Steve in the side of the face. He caught her other hand before she could punch him. “Oh thank god, you’re alright.”  
Agent 25 sat up and looked around the garage office. Everything was covered in thick layer of dust and sand, papers had made drifts along the wall where they’d blown from the wind coming in through the missing doors. “What the fuck…”  
“Are you ok?”  
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m…” She looked at the wet spot on the floor. There were trails through it and away from it. The sour smell of stomach acid wafted up to her. “Ok…maybe I’m not.” She still had her phone clutched in her hand where she’d been ready to call him.  
“Come on, let’s get you out of here.” Steve lifted her into his arms. Bright LED headlights illuminated the garage with a bluish white light. “Can you tell me the last thing you remember?” He laid her down on the back seat with her head in his lap.  
“I was just about to call you. The mechanic was working on the rental car.” She started to sit up. “Where is it?”  
“Sweetheart…it’s still back on the road.”  
“What? I don’t-I don’t understand…”  
Steve sighed. “This town…it’s not on the map. Tony found it in some old Cold War files. It was a staging town.” She frowned. “For atom bomb testing.”  
“I got that, Steve.”  
Her stomach lurched. “When your biochip started going crazy, I had Tony fly me out.”  
“Going crazy how?”  
“Your radiation exposure alarm went off. And it said you’d been poisoned.” He thumbed her cheek. “Did you eat anything while you were there?”  
“Of course, I ate a burger and fries and piece of apple pie with cheddar and a vanilla milk shake. I also had some lemonade and sugar cookies.”  
Steve frowned. “Where did you eat this at?”  
“The diner.”  
He sighed. “Ok…we’re going to pump your stomach and run a full system scan when we get back.”  
“Steve, what’s going on?” She sat up. Her eyes widened as she took in the bombed out houses and tree stumps that had been decimated to sharp points. Bile rose in the back of her throat. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”  
“Saves us from having to pump your stomach. Pull over!” The SUV swung to the side of the road. She barely made it out the door before she retched into the sand. Stomach acid and blood and something dark hit the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut against what it could have been. She opened her eyes when she felt Steve’s warm strong hand on her back. The dark thing squirmed and she squeezed her eyes shut again.  
“I don’t feel so good, Steve.”  
“Hang on, sweetheart.”


End file.
